Digital glimpse of Washington, D.C., c. 1814

The question as to what Washington, D.C., looked like two centuries ago is more perplexing than one might imagine.

That’s because there are very few reliable images, maps and written accounts from the early days of the nation’s capitol.

However, Dan Bailey, director of the Imaging Research Center at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, working with architectural historians, cartographers, engineers and ecologists, has recreated a “best guess” glimpse of the early city.

“At the start of the project, I literally went to the local library and expected to get two or three large coffee-table books on how D.C. looked,” Bailey told the Washington Post.